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Forty Chinese victims or family members of victims of Chongqing bombings between 1938 and 1943 filed a damages suit against the Japanese government on Thursday in Tokyo.

"My father was seriously wounded by the Japanese army's bombing on May 26, 1940, in his own shop," Zheng Youyu, one of the plaintiffs, said at a press conference. "He died two days later. We want to tell the Japanese people the truth of the bombing through filing the lawsuit."

"The Japanese government should take the responsibility and make compensation for the crimes of its predecessor," the 66-year-old man said.

The group of plaintiffs consists of 36 Chinese who were wounded or lost their family members during the more than five years of bombing in Chongqing of southwestern China and four victims or kin of victims of bombing in Leshan, Sichuan Province of southwestern China. They demanded the Japanese government apologize and each sought compensation of 10 million yen (about 84,900 U.S. dollars).

The Japanese army indiscriminately bombed Chongqing and nearby Leshan, Chengdu of the Sichuan province between 1938 and 1943. A recent study by a Chinese group shows that the bombings killed 23,600 people and wounded 37,700 people.